Only in America

The principal of a Nebraska public elementary school banned all Christmas decorations, songs, and references, including candy canes, because she mistakenly thought they were shaped like J’s to honor Jesus. Principal Jennifer Sinclair also told parents that a candy cane’s red stripe represents the blood of Christ, while the white stands for the Resurrection. Sinclair has since been placed on leave.

A Virginia high school teacher has been fired for referring to a transsexual student by the wrong pronouns. French teacher Peter Vlaming says that he agreed to use the new, masculine name of a female-born student now identifying as male. But as a Christian, he declined to use “masculine pronouns” for the student, on the grounds that “a specific worldview is being imposed upon me.”

Kavanaugh, Roberts back Planned Parenthood

The Supreme Court rebuffed efforts from Republican-led states to defund Planned Parenthood this week, frustrating conservatives who’d hoped newly appointed Justice Brett Kavanaugh would open the door to stricter abortion limits. Two federal appeals courts had ruled that Kansas and Louisiana violated federal law when they terminated Medicaid contracts with Planned Parenthood affiliates. The states asked the Supreme Court to intervene. But neither Kavanaugh nor Chief Justice John Roberts joined the other three conservatives in voting to consider the cases. “What explains the Court’s refusal to do its job here?” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote. “I suspect it has something to do with the fact that some respondents in these cases are named Planned Parenthood.”